Jason Robert Brown

In the summer of 2002, I had a meeting with a producer about writing the score for a new musical based on a beloved cartoon character from the 1930’s. In a dénouement that will be no surprise to regular readers of this blog, it didn’t work out as expected. The original rights-holder of this cartoon character had approval of the entire creative team, so before I could be officially hired, I was asked to write two songs that might fit in the show. In order to get paid to write those two songs, I signed an agreement stating that, inRead More »

Christopher Isherwood’s review here. His review for the original production (for Variety) can be found here. October 14, 2009 THEATER REVIEW | ‘PARADE’ Sorrow Over an Anti-Semitic Miscarriage of Justice, Rendered in Sotto Voce By CHARLES ISHERWOOD LOS ANGELES — As one of the bed-hopping interns in the hospital soap opera “Grey’s Anatomy,” T. R. Knight was both nebbishy and adorable, a sad-sack elf who still managed to get the girls, despite the fierce competition from his more square-jawed, bedroom-eyed colleagues. Onstage as Leo Frank, the Jewish factory superintendent wrongly accused of murdering a teenage girl in the musical “Parade,”Read More »

Les Spindle’s review here. Parade (Theater Review) By Les Spindle, October 05, 2009 05:25 ET Bottom Line: Catch it before it passes by. This brilliant musical by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown eloquently dramatizes a real-life tragic miscarriage of justice that occurred in 1913 in Atlanta: the false conviction and ultimate mob lynching of Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank, accused of murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan. The Mark Taper Forum’s triumphant staging feels like a long-delayed vindication of a separate injustice: the inexplicable obscurity of this watershed musical, which evokes the rapturous sweep of grand opera. Although it deservedly wonRead More »

Bob Verini’s review here. PARADE (Mark Taper Forum, 739 seats, $80 top) by Bob Verini A Center Theater Group presentation of the Donmar Warehouse production of a musical in two acts with book by Alfred Uhry, music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, co-conceived by Harold Prince. Directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford. Musical direction, Tom Murray. Leo Frank – T.R. Knight Lucille Frank – Lara Pulver Hugh Dorsey – Christian Hoff Newt Lee/Jim Conley/Riley – David St. Louis Old Soldier/Judge Roan/Guard – Davis Gaines Young Soldier/Frankie Epps/Guard – Curt Hansen Gov. Slaton/Britt Craig/Mr. Peavy – Michael Berresse Lila, MaryRead More »

Charles McNulty’s review here. Theater review: “Parade” at the Mark Taper Forum Los Angeles Times, October 4, 2009 T.R. Knight and Lara Pulver in “Parade.” Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times Jason Robert Brown’s entrancing Tony-winning score for “Parade,” the 1998 musical he wrote with playwright Alfred Uhry (whose book also won a Tony), throws patches of suggestive light on a dark historical episode. Music may be inherently abstract, but Brown’s compositional variety and depth of instrumental feeling imbue supple melodies with moral color. The distinguishing mark of the Donmar Warehouse’s scaled-down version of “Parade,” which opened this weekend at theRead More »